Large blaze at food processing plant

Dan GrimmerAn investigation is underway to find the cause of a major fire at a Norfolk food processing plant.Fire officers received a call at about 9.30pm last night about a 'well-developed' fire at Watton Produce in Hargham Road, Shropham, Attleborough.Dan Grimmer

An investigation is underway to find the cause of a major fire at a Norfolk food processing plant.

Fire officers received a call at about 9.30pm last night about a 'well-developed' fire at Watton Produce in Hargham Road, Shropham, Attleborough.

The blaze was in a small part of the plant and it was estimated by the time crews arrive it had covered an area of 50m x 50m.

Crews from at least 10 stations across the county, including Hethersett, Hingham, Wymondham, Sprowston, Diss and Long Stratton, worked together to control the blaze.

Andy Heginbotham, group manager for Breckland at Norfolk Fire Service, said it was not yet clear how the fire started.

'We have an investigation team on scene who will probably be there most of the day trying to establish what happened,' he said. 'Thanks to our crews doing some positive fire fighting the blaze was bought under control and was limited to a small section of the site.

'Nobody was injured but equipment used for food processing such as conveyor belts and storage boxes were obviously badly damaged.'

Watton produce supply over 40,000 tonnes of carrots and parsnips to the retail, food service and wholesale markets per year.

The Hargham Road site comprises of a number of production units used for washing, packing and preparing a wide variety of the vegetables.